NCJ Number
227017
Journal
Journal of School Violence Volume: 8 Issue: 2 Dated: April-June 2009 Pages: 159-176
Date Published
April 2009
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This study examined urban middle school students’ perceptions of bullying, cyberbullying, and school safety utilizing the Student Survey of Bullying Behavior-Revised 2.
Abstract
Findings reveal that physical, verbal, and relational forms of bullying and victimization appear to represent more general underlying constructs of bullying and victimization, calling into question the distinctiveness of the individual forms. Also suggested is that electronic and online activities may represent a unique modality of victimization and bullying. Cyberbullying and cybervictimization each had substantially lower loadings on the relevant second order factors for victimization and bullying when compared to physical, verbal, and relational modes. The large residual variances in cyberbullying and cybervictimization, and strong correlation between the two residuals, suggest that electronic and online bullying and victimization are different in fundamental ways from the other forms of bullying and victimization. This model reveals that victimization is related to perceptions of school safety, indicating those students who report being victimized more feel less safe at school. Data were collected from 437 students from a middle school located in a small urban school system in the Southeast. Tables, figures, and references